


Incidents

by SoManyThings



Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, M/M, Roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-20
Updated: 2016-07-20
Packaged: 2018-07-25 16:55:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7540561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoManyThings/pseuds/SoManyThings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's funny how a series of well timed incidents for a pair of new roommates can work wonders. </p><p>--</p><p>SolAngelo fic based off a tumblr prompt for a roommate au</p>
            </blockquote>





	Incidents

**Author's Note:**

> List of prompts is here btw:
> 
> http://americanbeautiies.tumblr.com/post/97071939304/okay-but-consider-friend-of-a-friend-needs-a

“Hey man come on, he really needs a place to stay-”

“No, Jason.”

“Seriously he’s a great roommate, you won’t even need to worry-”

“No, Jason-”

“-he’s at work most of the time anyway, the whole nurse thing-”

“Jason, n-”

“- so I’ll tell him you’ll meet up with him next week!”

“Jason!”

“See you, Nico!”

—-

“So, this is your room…” Nico di Angelo shifted his gaze into the small and empty room so he didn’t need to worry about eye contact with his, apparently, new roommate- no thanks to Jason “annoyingly nice and inviting” Grace. Will beamed, saying something about how nice it looked. _Ugh._

“Alright, that’s great.” He put his hand out to Nico, who literally looked like death but apparently to this guy screamed _‘I like human contact!'_

“I’m, uh-” Nico muttered, looking away from the annoyingly bright hair and smile and eyes of Will Solace; trainee nurse, friend to everyone and second in positivity only to Jason. 

This was going to be _wonderful._

_—-_

A few things about Nico di Angelo. His family was never a very affectionate one. He had lost his sister to a car crash in high school, and had only begun to rebuild familial ties upon discovering another half-sister he didn’t know he had last winter. As such, Nico was never a very affectionate person. This applied to anything from hugs to handshakes, pats on the back to teasing nudges. He also was not the most, well, orthodox looking person. With dark unruly hair, hunched shoulders and a figure not too different from a stick, he didn’t scream _“Talk to me!”_

To most people, anyway. Jason Grace was an oddity, and apparently Will Solace was too. 

A few things about Will Solace. He had a big family with no lack of brightness from his dad, who seemed to just _radiate_ vibes of… Well, of something. His family also seemed to place an unusually large encouragement on the arts; poetry, music, drama. Will possessed very few of those qualities, but damn could that boy whistle down a cab if he wanted to. No, Will was much more into doctor-y stuff. He had blonde hair and blue eyes and there was nothing short or contained about him. Needless to say, if you put him next to Nico and heard they were ever even close to friends, you would assume you were looking at the wrong two people. 

And you wouldn’t be far off, considering they- by which we mean Nico- had any intention of getting along with his new roommate. Yet. 

—-

The first issue that arose was brought up late one night, two weeks after Will moved in.  

“Have you eaten yet?” Will asked. On the way to bed he realised that in the whole of his time in his new apartment, he had never once seen Nico eating anything. In truth, all Nico _had_ eaten that day was half a packet of crisps (still sitting at his desk) and a small amount of cereal, downed with cups and cups of coffee. 

“I’m not hungry.” was all he said in return. With his head turned down to his book, he didn’t see Will narrow his eyes in suspicion. 

“Are you _sure?”_ Will didn’t pretend to know everything about his new roommate, eating habits included, but this was definitely something that piqued his interest. 

“Yeah." 

"Not at all.”

“No.”

“Nico.”

“What?” He turned around and frowned. Since he lost Bianca, his appetite had plummeted. It had been nearly 5 years and he had never thought much of it. Admittedly, he had been making an effort since Hazel appeared (which had little to do with her nagging) but he still could muster days without eating. It didn’t bother him, and he had no idea why it should bother Will.

But it did. A lot. 

Will stepped away from Nico into their messy kitchen which, given the eating habits of the younger, was pretty much his fault. The same boy who was currently racking his brain trying to think of what and how he could force nutrients into his roommate. All he knew was that he’d be damned if he had to dispose of a body dead from malnourishment. 

The next half hour was composed of calls to friends that knew either Nico or anything about cooking, spattered alongside attempts at making a decent meal. The result of which was nothing but a simple dish of pasta and vegetables, but Will was damn proud of it. He returned into their living room where Nico was sitting, absorbed once more in various books. Will smiled and slid over to Nico, almost tapping his shoulder before remembering the all important “no touching” rule. Instead, he walked his way round to stand in front of the sulking boy and held out the dish. 

“What?” was all Nico said. 

“You need to eat!” was all Will replied with.

“Uh-”

“Doctor’s orders?” Will tried. Neither’s facial expression changed, leaving them staring at each other. In the end, Will sighed and set the food down on the little table next to a pile of unopened books. Retreating to his bedroom once and for all, he tried not to feel crestfallen, but was not so secretly pleased when he awoke the next morning to a half-empty plate of pasta on the kitchen counter. 

—-

Another thing about Nico di Angelo. He was not the straightest person. For a long while he had struggled with a crush on his friend, but slowly- very slowly- he was getting over it. 

Another thing about Will Solace. Normally, one might say everyone has a gay cousin, and if you don’t have one, you are the gay cousin. Will Solace had an excessively large amount of cousins, and a significant chunk of them were gay. This included him. 

Something about Jason Grace. His girlfriend was revered as someone who knew a good deal about relationships, and it may have rubbed off on him. What may have also rubbed off on him was an urge to, ah, set certain people up, shall we say.

—-

The next incident, happening a month and a half into their new arrangement, was more significant than the first and involved a shower, a spilled bottle of shampoo and no lack of embarrassment on either party’s behalf. It started when Nico di Angelo slipped and fell. 

_Wham!_

“FFFFF-”

“Nico?”

Will looked up and muted the TV. There were no other sounds in the apartment other than running water, which halted as soon as the boy started listening. He got up and walked to the closed yet unlocked bathroom door, knocking slowly and hesitantly when he didn’t hear anything from his roommate. 

“Uuu…”

“Are you alright?” He tried. No answer. 

“Nico?” His voice rose, and he got a harsh swear back in return. Will rolled his eyes, grabbing the doorknob and turning it, intent on walking in.

“Wait!” Nico screeched. Will stopped. Waited. There was another _'clunk!’_ and what sounded like a hiss before he heard the “Yeah” that said it was all clear, so to speak. 

When he opened the door, he took in the sight before him, which was nothing short of chaos. The shower door was open and there were a few puddles of water splattered on the floor. Bottles of shampoo littered the floor, including one that had spilled down the side of the foggy glass door. And in the middle of all this, shirtless Nico di Angelo sat in a pitiful state, towel over his lap, soap in his hair and one arm clutching his very dislocated and very painful looking shoulder. 

Will sighed. 

His well deserved weekend seemed to be one day that he would be going back into A&E. 

He carefully made his way over to his friend and knelt down, frowning at what was before him. In his time as a nurse he had seen plenty of breaks and dislocations, and they were no problem to fix- assuming he had what he needed. In their small shared apartment, he didn’t. This of course meant hauling Nico to the hospital. This meant getting Nico up, dressed and out the door. This meant no shortage of awkward moments. 

Will didn’t pretend to be straight, he really didn’t. If Nico noticed was another problem all together, but if he could avoid seeing his cute and oddly sweet roommate naked, he wanted to. That, apparently, did not seem to be the case. But as of now, Nico was his patient, and that meant one thing: Will had to be patient. 

“I’m gonna need to break the no touching rule, alright?” He said. Nico nodded, gritted his teeth. After the initial surprise and panic of _'oh shit I’m not wearing clothes hang on’,_ it was all he could do to stop wanting to yell at Will, who was simply sitting quietly and looking at his arm. He patted Nico’s uninjured hand reassuringly and got up for a moment, ducking out of the bathroom and into his own to return with a bright orange camp counsellor t-shirt. Nico stared at it. Orange was a colour he had decided long ago was not his own. But it looked like he didn’t have a choice.

Will knelt again, helping to get it over Nico’s damp head, supporting his hurt arm while the other poked out the sleeve, trying not to run his hands down Nico’s surprisingly well shaped stomach. 

_“Damn it Solace, focus!”_

Helping Nico stand, they soon realised how distinct their height and weight differences were. The shirt extended far down Nico’s thighs, excessively droopy around his middle where Will was wider and more built up. Helping Nico walk into the living room, Will went to grab a pair of shorts. In this time, Nico realised a few things. 

First, Will was almost too nice. Second, he had come oh so close to having his junk on display to his roommate, when he had specifically hoped that that could be avoided. Third, he had only briefly thought Will’s hand lingered on is stomach and oh no Will was back carrying his shorts and _God…_

After the tricky ordeal of getting Nico slightly less naked, the two got on their way to the hospital. The car ride was quiet to and from, including no reference to what was seen or almost seen or felt for longer than needed. When Nico finally emerged from getting bandaged up he caught sight of Will smiling at a girl in scrubs. Nico huffed, looked at his feet, missed the beam of relief on Will’s face when he saw his friend was still in one piece. 

They made it home quietly, and after helping Nico into bed- still in Will’s orange shirt- Will flopped down on his bed, contemplating certain things. Nico lay in his bed doing the same, except with a text message.

**to; nico (1:04 pm)**

_how goes the new roommate? ;) xx_

**to; hazel (11:37 pm)**

_dislocated my arm. will brought me to a+e._

**to; nico (11:39 pm)**

_!!! u ok_

**to; hazel (11:40 pm)**

_ye. will brought me to a+e_

**to; nico (11:42 pm)**

_u said ;)_

After that, Nico went to bed with a blush and a huff; if he was mad or embarrassed, he didn’t know. 

—-

Unsurprisingly, news spread within the tight knit friendship group Hazel prided herself in acquiring. By which she meant Jason, Nico’s firsthand encourager, Piper, the expert on relationships, Reyna, Nico’s travel buddy and Frank, who was filled in while he made pancakes and Hazel babbled about everything she forgot to tell him the night before. 

This spread to another two of Nico and Will’s mutual friends, Percy and Annabeth, who mentioned it to Leo who told his cousin Charles, who of course babbled to his girlfriend Silena (who had heard it from Drew who overheard Piper) but decided to fill in Clarisse, who told Chris and all of her friends, and news just _spread._

This news not of course being that Nico and Will were dating, because they weren’t, or even that they had a crush on each other, because they didn’t- yet. Of course, there were only five people that knew Nico was gay and even fewer that knew about Will. Yet everyone else seemed to know that something was surely going on between them, and that whatever it was, those two were in denial. Which they were. 

—-

With a dislocated shoulder, there wasn’t much more action from Nico for a long while. He mainly stayed at home and had his friends come to him. Currently he was a student at university, studying the ever interesting subject of Classics. With Will at work Nico regularly had company over, from Hazel bringing him ice-cream to Jason bringing video games, Reyna bringing homework to Leo bringing nothing but apparent “love”- Nico disagreed. 

And somewhere along the line, someone must have brought something more than a treat, which resulted in Nico falling ill, which was the next of the incidents. But not yet: Nico ate a lot of fruit and bounced right back after an afternoon under the weather. No, the real incident occurred when Will got home that evening, fell on the couch next to Nico and drank his friend’s soda by accident. 

This was the story of how the excelling nurse Will Solace got a cold. 

It started with Nico, of course, who couldn’t _really_ be to blame, but it carried on with Will waking up the next morning feeling like death. He trudged himself up and out of bed, his sinuses pounding, and dragged his feet out to the kitchen, where Nico stood in the oversized orange t-shirt he had claimed as his own, up early in need of water. Nico blinked at the pathetic mess of a roommate he had standing in front of him. 

“What are you doing?”

“Work…” Will mustered, and Nico shook his head. 

“No.”

“No?”

“No. Go back to bed, Will.”

“I can’t miss work, Nico-”

“Bed, Solace." 

"Nico-”

“Doctor’s orders.” Nico said, sterner this time. Will laughed, then his head hurt, so he stopped. Nico rolled his eyes, nearly dragging Will back into his bedroom and “lightly” shoving him into bed- as best he could with one usable arm. Then Nico went back to sleep, and so did Will. 

Will woke up a few hours later, still feeling rubbish, and gasped, sitting straight up and grabbing for his alarm clock. _10:41,_ it shone up at him condescendingly. Will swore and tried to bound out of bed only to be caught in the blankets. Hearing commotion, of course, led Nico into the other’s room. He rolled his eyes and went over to sort out the mess that was Solace. 

Nico half helped half dragged Will up to his feet, allowing him to come into the other room. On the living room table sat cough sweets and tissues. Will smiled feebly and collapsed onto the couch, accepting defeat. Nico pulled down a blanket to cover his friend’s lap, and then disappeared for the next 10 minutes, returning with, to Will’s surprise, orange juice and actual food- soup, even. He smiled yet again, this time directly at Nico, who avoided his gaze and tried not to flush. 

“It’s.. not a lot. Just something small Bianca used to make when I was sick.”

Ah, _Bianca_. Bianca had been in Will’s classes as a junior in high school, but barely for any time at all. She was new, and had gotten into a car crash with two other students, both of which survived. Bianca wasn’t lucky. The next year her younger brother went to the same school, and even though Will never met him he heard so much about “the odd di Angelo kid”, who was always so much worse off than his lovely older sister had been. 

After Will left to university, news spread about the orphaned and family-less boy who would skirt around foster homes because he had no mom, no dad and now, no siblings. News would pop up from Percy; 'Hey, that kid found his dad’, 'Hey, that kid found his half-sister’, 'Hey, that kid is still as weird as ever’. Then one day, instead of hearing comments from Percy, Will heard something from a kid in his old apartment block. 'Hey, I know you need a place to stay soon, I know a guy that wouldn’t mind having a roommate, I’m sure.' 

And then Will finally met the infamous scary di Angelo kid, who was pretty much as scary and intimidating as everyone said, but not too bad all around. After all, he made a damn good bowl of soup. 

Throughout the day and into the rest of the week, Nico acted as the nurse’s nurse. He bought cough sweets, replaced tissues, picked up fallen books and made the best soup Solace had tasted in a long while. Nico would go to classes when he had to, but sat right next to Will whenever he was home. One night, Nico bent down to press his lips against his warm forehead ( _“To check your temperature”,_ he said) of which Will was only 60% sure was warm because of the illness. The other 40%, he didn’t think about. 

After he began to feel better, he dawdled on the unexplained things of his period off work. The smiles Nico gave him when he said the soup was helping. The food that wasn’t just being made for one anymore, but gladly eaten by both parties. The frequent text messages Nico seemed to be getting that made Will almost jealous seeing how much they made Nico blush- which was stupid, why would Will be jealous? He spent long shifts thinking about things, wondering, questioning, and doing all around everything but his job. If his boss hadn’t been his second cousin, he would have been fired months ago. But that was who his boss was, and Will stayed distracted, even though he wasn’t aware Nico was just as distracted as he was. 

—-

**to; jason (11:51 am)**

_do you feel bad meddling with these two?_

**to; hazel (12:02 pm)**

_why would i? nico needs a roommate, and someone to get over u kno who_

**to; jason (12:25 pm)**

_i feel bad about will tho. me + u don’t kno him well enough_

**to; hazel (12:27 pm)**

_we have master-beth behind us, we good._

**to; jason (12:30 pm)**

_if u say so…_

_—-_

After a few previous incidents ranging from a fixing a diet to a dislocated shoulder, Nico had begun to warm up to Solace, which was not meant to be ironic because _damn_ that boy was warm. What it took to really push him over the edge, happened nearly two months after the time Solace got ill. 

Since Bianca’s incident, Nico had been prone to nightmares. Bad ones, too. Not the going to school naked kind, not the trapped in a box kind, but the repeat of horrible things happening to everyone he loved. The repeat of Bianca crashing, bleeding, dying. The repeat of Thalia and Percy laughing it off, not protecting his sister like they said they would. The repeat of Jason leaving, the repeat of Hazel leaving, the repeat of no more mom and no more dad, no more _anyone._

This one was worse. When he woke with a start in the middle of the night he could hardly remember it, and he didn’t even want to try. It wasn’t just Bianca in the car, it was her and Jason and Hazel and Reyna and Percy and _Will_ and Nico sat up and leapt out of bed because he couldn’t bear it. Breathing heavy, he shoved his way out of his stuffy little room where there was more air, a lot more air and he could breathe.

“Nico?" 

Will was quiet when he wanted to be, nowhere near as silent as Nico, but still stealthy. Of course, his radiant blond hair and too-blue-to-be-natural-but-they-were eyes stuck out in the shadowy apartment. Will blinked a few times, concern etched in what Nico could see of his face. 

"Nico, what’s wrong?” Will repeated, making Nico remember that Will had said anything at all. He was still silent, almost panting, standing like a deer in the headlights because that kind of thing happened and it made people crash cars and they didn’t always survive-

The next thing he realised was that he was warm, and after that he realised he had been shivering before. Then he realised that he was being _hugged_ , and he didn’t exactly mind, but wasn’t too happy. He blinked and wriggled away from Will’s grip, who let go immediately, always breaking then respecting the rule. 

“Nightmare…” Nico finally forced out, and Will nodded. He was no stranger to them, despite what people assumed. Instead, Will just gestured to his own room. Nico blinked. 

“Sit in here with me.” was all he said, and Nico found himself unable to say no, or stop himself from following the other boy into his own room. It was just as dark in there as it was anywhere else in their apartment, but Nico didn’t mind darkness, not as much as he did loneliness. Will sat on the bed and patted next to him, where Nico obliged and sat down, pulling his knees to his chest. They both sat quietly, not saying anything but also not minding. Then Will spoke. 

“Do you wanna talk about it?” Nothing else, just a simple, obvious “do you want to talk?”. An invitation Nico had always received from everyone that didn’t matter- teachers, counsellors, foster mothers. The only time he heard it and had it matter was when Hazel learnt what happened, and he told her everything that he never let anyone else know. And for some reason, Will wasn’t that different. 

“It’s always… It’s always a car crash. Always. With Bianca, mostly, but sometimes other people are there. And they always die.” Will nodded. Stayed quiet. Nico didn’t start crying, he wasn’t the crying type. But he didn’t stop talking there, and he spilled things he had told no one but Hazel and Bianca, because Will was just that kind of person. Or, he seemed to be at 1:28 am. 

The next morning Nico woke up in a ball in a bed that he wasn’t familiar with. There was sunlight. There was colourful clothes on the ground and in the wardrobe. There was drool on his pillow. There was not the room he was familiar with, and everything he had told Will the night before came falling back into his head. 

He groaned, rolled over, covered his face in his hands. A glance at the clock showed Will would be gone for work. He grabbed his phone where it lay on his own bed in the other room, and immediately texted Hazel.

**to; hazel (10:24 am)**

_i messed up_

**to; nico (10:26 am)**

_what???_

**to; hazel (10:28 am)**

_had a nightmare. told will. ruined it didn’t i._

It was at this point that Nico realised what he had said, and what it meant. He groaned again even louder, falling back onto his bed. _Ruined it._ Ruined what? Ruined _it,_ which meant any possibility that Will would ever think he wasn’t weird and scary. He ruined _it,_ and _it_ was the minimal chance he had with his roommate, maybe ex-roommate, because who wants to be a roommate or a friend or anything more to someone as weird as him.

The answer would come shortly, but Nico did not know anything of the sort. Instead, he lay in bed for the rest of the day, and hoped Will wouldn’t be too long when he moved out.

—-

Will spent work thinking about Nico, thinking about how he could make him feel better. Will spent the day thinking about how he could get Nico something to remind him of Bianca. Will spent the day thinking about his roommate, and his friend, and Will did not spend a single second thinking that this was odd. Will was not at the same point as Nico, but it was only a matter of time. All the intervention possible had been done, and it was just a waiting game for everyone else. But Will didn’t think of any of that. Will was thinking about how Nico might appreciate italian food. 

—-

For the next few days, Nico spent most of his time as he did when he first met Will: ignoring him. Which, of course, upset Will, who did nothing but wonder if he should have acted sooner and taken him out to Olive Garden the other day. He did not wonder why he was considering this, or why he cared so much. That would come soon. 

The answer came a few hours later, in fact. 

The answer came to Will when he came home from a late night grocery run to hear water running, and hoped that there wouldn’t be another unplanned trip to the hospital. He put away what groceries he had bought and went to walk to his room, when he stopped in front of the closed bathroom door in a small state of shock.  Because Nico di Angelo was singing.

He didn’t know what he was singing, something in Italian that sounded like a lullaby. But he absolutely realised that Nico lived up to his surname; he sounded _angelic._ His face flushed, imagining Nico singing anything and everything in a multitude of languages. He felt himself smile and he couldn’t help it, maybe because he himself sounded like a dying cat when he tried anything musical. Yet because Will was the focused person he was, he also couldn’t help but forget that he was blocking the door to the bathroom, and that Nico didn’t know he was home, and that he had a tendency to zone out and therefore didn’t hear the water or singing stop. 

As such, Nico ended up yelling loudly and Will ended up jumping almost 3 feet in the air. 

Nico’s hand flew over his heart and he exhaled hard; Will laughed (once he regained his senses, that is.) Then he looked up at Nico with his damp hair just like the night he was sitting on the floor of the shower, that Will couldn’t help but hope didn’t land him with a cold again, and _Will’s_ t-shirt on his scrawny body that was actually much fuller than it had been when Will first moved in because Nico actually ate and-

_Oh._

Will stopped his train of thought, looked at Nico a little bit more. 

Jason had always had a weird saying about a coin that would be flipped and always land on a side that meant a guaranteed win. He always brought it up, about how you could never lose, but with the coin still in the air you would always find yourself anticipating, worrying, that you get the good side. That was the first thing that popped into Will’s mind, although he wasn’t even sure how it linked into the situation. Except he had the same anticipation, wondering how the coin would land, if it would be the good side. 

Nico cleared his throat. Will coughed. They shuffled away to their own respective rooms, and sent a text. 

—-

**to; michael (9:50 pm)**

_h e l p  m e.._

**to; will (9:55 pm)**

_boys?_

**to; michael (9:57 pm)**

_hhhh_

_—-_

**to; hazel (9:51 pm)**

_so uh. will._

**to; nico (9:56 pm)**

_the penny drops!!! <3_

_—-_

**to; jason (10:00 pm)**

_you and your damn friends that need *roommates*_

**to; nico (10:03 pm)**

_u kno, i got a text just like this a few minutes ago_

_—-_

**to; jason (9:59 pm)**

_so, your friend needed a “roommate”, huh?_

**to; will (10:02 pm)**

_i just got a text pretty similar to this actually_

_—-_

“Will?”

“Nico?”

The two boys said each other’s names at the same time. They both stood outside their bedrooms, phones in hand, at 10:05 pm. They stared at each other. Calculating. Thinking. Remembering incidents with showers, incidents with injuries and maladies, incidents with food. Nico was still wearing Will’s t-shirt, and it was still way too big on him. They looked at each other, different to how they had when they first became roommates some number of months ago. 

“So…” Will started. Nico looked at his feet. 

“You know, I don’t know if I told you this when I moved in but uh, y'see, I’m not all that-”

“Yeah I was gonna say, I’m not really-”

“Straight.” They spoke at the same time, avoiding each other’s gazes. 

“Oh.” Quiet.

_“Jason fucking Grace…”_

_—-_

Around a year after Will and Nico became roommates, they were still dating. They still lived together, albeit in a nicer place. Will was doing well as a nurse, Nico was still studying, and they were somehow still both, miraculously, friends with Jason. The 'no touching’ rule had even managed to be lifted, which may just go to show how amazing a year with a certain person can be.

Hazel still told Frank all the gossip she heard from Jason, who had listened in on Piper talking to Annabeth on the phone, who was discussing a lunch she had with Thalia. With Thalia living with Reyna, who talked to Nico who, of course was the source of the knowledge, knew everything about life with a nurse for a boyfriend roommate. And the cycle continued. Gossiping friends and roommates turned boyfriends. As they do, with the help of a lot of intervention and certain well timed incidents. 


End file.
